him if you like. Tempest is fair. He is very fair, and as long as no one meddles with him he won't do amiss. I can't hold my tongue always, but I often know that it is better that I should."
Dr. Tempest said not a word to any one on the subject, not even in his own defence. And yet he was sorely tempted. On the very day of the meeting he dined at Mr. Walker's in Silverbridge, and there submitted to be talked at by all the ladies and most of the gentlemen present, without saying a word in his own defence. And yet a word or two would have been so easy and so conclusive.
"Oh, Dr. Tempest," said Mary Walker, "I am so sorry that you have joined the bishop."
"Are you, my dear?" said he. "It is generally thought well that a parish clergyman should agree with his bishop."
"But you know, Dr. Tempest, that you don't agree with your bishop generally."
"Then it is the more fortunate that I shall be able to agree with him on this occasion."
Major Grantly was present at the dinner, and ventured to ask the doctor in the course of the evening what he thought would be done. "I should not venture to ask such a question, Dr. Tempest," he said, "unless I had the strongest possible reason to justify my anxiety."
"I don't know that I can tell you anything, Major Grantly," said the doctor. "We did not even see Mr. Crawley to-day. But the real truth is that he must stand or fall as the jury shall find him guilty or not guilty. It would be the same in any profession. Could a captain in the army hold up his head in his regiment after he had been tried and found guilty of stealing twenty pounds?"
"I don't think he could," said the major.
"Neither can a clergyman," said the doctor. "The bishop can neither make him nor mar him. It is the jury that must do it."
